The Arctic Food Network, designed by Lola Sheppard, seeks to
address the challenges of food security/mobility in the remote
territory of Nunavut in northern Canada. Copyright: Lola Sheppard,
Lateral Office

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Once the exclusive purview of private clients
and the fabulously wealthy, architectural patronage is changing as
architects increasingly cultivate partnerships with nonprofits,
community organizations and other public entities.

These new forms of sponsorship have prompted innovative models
of practice that not only have opened up new areas of design but
have also engaged with and empowered diverse and underserved
populations.

To better understand this trend and its implications for design,
research and practice, the University at Buffalo School of
Architecture and Planning has invited eight internationally
distinguished architects, scholars and designers to present "Beyond
Patronage: Reconsidering Models of Practice," the 2012 Martell
Symposium.

All events will be free and open to the public, but those who
wish to attend are asked to RSVP to the symposium website, http://beyondpatronage.wordpress.com.
The site lists the full schedule of events and speaker
biographies.

The symposium will open Oct. 16 with a panel, "Student as
Instigator," at 5:30 p.m. at the Greatbatch Pavilion, 125 Jewett
Parkway in Buffalo. It will feature guest speakers and UB
architecture students in a discussion about the role of emerging
young designers in a shifting landscape for practice.

October 17 events will begin at 9 a.m. in Harriman Hall, UB
South Campus. They will include a series of panels organized around
emerging roles of the architect -- as an advocate who actively
engages new client bases, as a detective who uncovers hidden
conditions and spaces and as an initiator who forges
entrepreneurial and innovative business models for architectural
practice.

A catered reception will follow at 7:30 p.m. at Kleinhans Music
Hall, 3 Symphony Circle, Buffalo.

Robert G. Shibley, professor and dean of the UB School of
Architecture and Planning, says, "'Beyond Patronage' is an example
of our school's long-standing sponsorship of public events that
push the boundaries of thinking, scholarship and practice in our
disciplines." He points out that this is just one of a series of
public lectures and exhibits sponsored by the school throughout the
semester.

Joyce Hwang, assistant professor of architecture and one of the
organizers of the event, says, "Driven in part by the instability
of the conventional model of practice in poor economic times and a
rapidly changing political, social and ecological climate,
architects and designers have begun to reinvent models of practice
and confront the priorities of architecture.

"Beyond Patronage brings to Buffalo some of the most innovative
thinkers and practitioners in the field," she says, "to discuss how
their work informs these evolving notions of architectural
patronage."

Featured speakers will include:

* Lola Sheppard, whose firm, Lateral Office, has partnered with
the government of northern Canada's Nunavut Territory to design the
Arctic Food Network, which will provide this remote community with
food security and safe navigation.

* Yolande Daniels, principal of Studio SUMO, whose award-winning
work includes the design of ethnic museums and a culturally
sensitive housing project in Miami's Little Haiti. She will discuss
BLINDSPOTS, a series of projects that explore the intersection of
race, architecture and the city.

* Georgeen Theodore, whose firm, Interboro, partnered with the
Museum of Modern Art on the project "Holding Pattern" to address
institution-community connections through creation of a temporary
public space outside the museum.

* Natalie Jeremijenko, director of xDesign Environmental Health
Clinic is an artist, engineer and scholar whose work explores the
interface of society, the environment and technology. Among her
recent works is a permanent roof installation in New York City that
supports high-density bird cohabitation.

* Hansy L. Better Barraza, principal of Studio Luz Architects,
an associate professor at the Rhode Island School of Design, and
co-founder of BRACE: Building Research + Architecture + Community
Exchange, a nonprofit organization that brings together artists and
designers with community members to create new community
spaces.

* Linda Taalman of the firm Taalman Koch Architecture,
internationally known for the "itHouse," a line of prefabricated
minimalist houses that support off-the-grid, sustainable
living.

* Lori Brown, professor of architecture at Syracuse University
and editor of "Feminist Practices," a new book that documents an
international group of women designers and architects whose work
engages feminist methodologies. She is also involved in projects
investigating women's shelters in Turkey and the spaces of abortion
clinics.

Events on Oct. 17 include a breakout session on pro bono work
organized by the Buffalo Architecture Foundation, which will
feature local practitioners from various practice frameworks:
Courtney Creenan (MArch/MUP '12), one of the UB student designers
of "Elevator B," an architectural beehive habitat at Silo City in
Buffalo's industrial corridor; Joy Kuebler, director of a small
landscape architecture firm in Buffalo, and Kathy Callesto (MArch
'08), who heads the Cannon Design partnership with Habitat for
Humanity Buffalo.

"The issue of exclusion and inclusion in the field and a
shifting dynamic of power between architects and the communities
they serve will be a central theme of the symposium," says Martha
Bohm, assistant professor of architecture at UB and a co-organizer
of the symposium.

"Women and minorities continue to be underrepresented in
traditional architectural practice, while architectural services
remain out of reach for many," she adds. "Yet these new forms of
patronage also empower historically excluded populations."

Bohm and Hwang are both part of the Ecological Practices
Graduate Research Group in the UB school's Department of
Architecture, which supports a more sustainable world through
ecologically literate architectural practice and design shaped and
limited by natural systems.

Adds Omar Khan, associate professor and chair of the Department
of Architecture: "The 2012 Martell Symposium will vastly enrich our
school's pedagogical and academic experience, with faculty and
students closely involved in every aspect -- from programming the
event to participating in the panels to producing related
scholarship."

Additional support for the symposium is being provided by UB's
Gender Institute, which is featuring the event as part of Gender
Week 2012. Symposium organization was also facilitated by Shannon
Phillips, assistant dean for graduate education in the School of
Architecture and Planning, where she heads diversity initiatives,
and Gabrielle Printz, a graduate architecture student at UB.